


find a new word for what we are

by braigwen_s



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Autistic Carrot Ironfoundersson, Autistic Havelock Vetinari, Autistic Leonard of Quirm, Autistic Sybil Ramkin, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:48:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26430655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/braigwen_s/pseuds/braigwen_s
Summary: "Polis" means "of the city," it is known.  In the same language, "Autos" means "of oneself".
Relationships: Carrot Ironfoundersson & Havelock Vetinari, Leonard of Quirm & Havelock Vetinari, Roberta Meserole & Havelock Vetinari, Rufus Drumknott & Havelock Vetinari, Sybil Ramkin & Havelock Vetinari
Comments: 24
Kudos: 48





	find a new word for what we are

Havelock Vetinari was always a strange child. He thought a lot, and knew a lot of languages. He always ate every part of a meal separately, one by one, and didn’t like when they touched on his plate. He didn’t play with other children, but spun around in perfect circles and stared at trees, or stayed indoors and read and wrote. He didn’t talk a lot, even to his Aunt, Lady Meresole, whose ward he was.

“He exists within himself,” she told a visitor one day, when he was sitting unseen under a side table. She was speaking proto-Gerekian, because she didn’t know yet he could speak it. “ _Autos_ ,” she said. He thought about that, off-and-on, for fifty years. Somewhere around the twenty mark he settled down and had linguistic evolution as ‘ _Autistic_ ’. It seemed as good a way as any to describe the way his mind worked differently to others’.

At the twenty-two mark he met Leonard da Quirm. He was a polymath and an utter genius, politely described as ‘eccentric’ and perhaps more accurately described as … well, as living in his own head. _Autistic_ , thought Havelock Vetinari, and made a mental note to ensure he found somewhere safe to store his body while he was working in his mind. He became Patrician shortly after, and promptly made Leonard some airy rooms in the Palace.

A few years after that he realized Lady Sybil Ramkin, who followed all of the rules and was still disliked by her peers, who lived in three rooms of her house and got along with dragons more than people, was like them, too.

At around the thirty mark, Carrot Ironfoundersson came to Ankh-Morpok with a perfectly normal sword and memorized the entire _Rules and Ordinances_ – and followed them. He took someone so literally that Lupine Wonse was thrown from a tower and died. He had a suspicious destiny, and thus needed watching, but Havelock Vetinari would have watched him anyway. He looked reality in the eyes and said ‘no, I think you’re better,’ and somehow he was not wrong. The world around him depended on the rare and bewildering way his mind worked. Havelock Vetinari added him to the short list of People Who Were Autistic.

Just a few days after that, he found his new secretary, Rufus Drumknott. Drumknott liked numbers and schedules and didn’t have anything that could be classed as a ‘social life’. His main companions appeared to be stationary, and he appeared to be at peace with this. He liked things to be tidy and ordered, and so he changed them so that they were. Havelock Vetinari offered him a job making the whole city tidy, and for the fourth time in his life, not counting his own mirrors, saw an instant, driving loyalty against all common sense. He didn’t need to think the word, because Rufus Drumknott listened to him describe his idiosyncratic list of demands and murmured ‘ _Autos_ ’.

“Autistic,” Havelock Vetinari suggested, and the young man’s mind emerged briefly from its tight shell to look at his own with awe. 

Carrot Ironfoundersson, it turned out, knew at least one word of proto-Gerekian – ‘ _polis_ ’. “Captain Carrot,” he said, “because we understand one another so well, and I think we do understand one another … there is something I’d like to show you.”

A few weeks later, he was still limping heavily, but he had enough stamina back to navigate the protections he had installed to safeguard Leonard. “Leonard,” he asked him, “What do you think about the word ‘Autistic’?”

“’Inside oneself’,” said Leonard. “I’m not quite certain how that would work … would it involve autocannibalism?”

“I’m quite certain that it would not,” said Havelock Vetinari quickly, and distracted him. After a few minutes, he smiled.


End file.
